Digital Nails So Sparkle Swatch and Review

Have you ever had to deal with someone who blurted out offensive and racist remarks when all you asked was a yes or no question? Well, that was my day yesterday and I've been doing damage control since then. Good times, good times. In other awesome news... Digital Nails. Can we just talk about Digital Nails? Because I am going to talk about Digital Nails. A few things here: 1) Raph gave me news that she completed the custom polish for Claw of Cthulhu (holy shit, the phrase "I AM SO F*CKING EXCITED" doesn't even scrape the surface; and also 2) Digital Nails has recently switched to biodegradable packaging so can we stand up and give them some high fives for thinking of our Mother Earth? Awesome. With that said, I've got another from the Doge collection... So Sparkle.

If you lurve this polish or any of the other Digital Nails polishes I've shared on this blog, be sure to check out the Digital Nails Etsy shop, and follow them on Facebook for more news!





As you can see... So Sparkle. Yes. Shifty goodness bundled up and spoiled with glitter and flakes galore. Friggin' GALORE. Here's a bottle shot and a macro so you can get a better idea:





Yeah buddy. Here's the description from Digital Nails: Much Glitter! Many flake! So shine. Wow.

Back in January, someone linked that 2048 game on Facebook and many of us were instantly hooked! Well, what is better than regular 2048? DOGE 2048! I can't tell you how many hours I spent matching little Doge tiles in hopes of getting the final yellow starburst Doge... I digress. This polish was inspired by the rainbow tile doge, and every doge meme that is out there, warning us in its brightly colored comic sans font that we have seen something awesome, or awful. Doge has no boundaries, only bad grammar. We love you, Doge!

So Sparkle is a hodgepodge of everything I love about indie polish. It has Multichrome pigment, actual silver coated flakies, holographic glitter, color shifting glitter, and other shinies that will make you temporarily blind, should you stare at it too long. Be careful while you're driving, y'all. This polish looks completely different in all different lighting - it changes from charcoal, to purple, to steel blue, even bordering on a silvery aqua sometimes! The teeeeny holo glitters are the little sisters to our polish Supernova, so you KNOW how those react to sun. Bring on the sunglasses!

It will come shipped gift ready, in a white box with colorful packing material. This and all of my other polishes are 5 Free, which means I never use toluene, formaldehyde resin, formaldehyde, camphor or Dibutyl Phthalate. It is also vegan and cruelty free.

Holy. Fleckin'. Hell. I must confess... I didn't know what I was getting into when I applied this polish. I was a little uncertain just staring at it in a bottle... But on the nail. On the nail is a completely other story - the duo-multi-polychrome effect is explosive. Noticeable immediately. The flakes and glitters are far more highlighted on the nail. I painted my nails and was wow'd in my room which is gross and has artificial lighting... Then I went to drive to work on a sunny day and BOOM. Another completely different look.

I know it's almost cliche to say this but... Photos do not do justice. I tried, oh baby, I tried! Application wise - this one is great. Definitely a two coater as the first only lays out a bit of a foundation. Two coats for the magic to take effect here. I added a coat of Seche Vite:











I know... I know... I wish I could get sunshine in my light box too.

I really tried to think about what I could do to make nail art of this. As you saw yesterday, I added Much Glitter:



And I'll be honest... I think Much Glitter and So Sparkle pair VERY well. The only other nail art I could think of was to add gold striping tape and maybe fill in some black blocks. But even then... So Sparkle holds up so well on its own, I wasn't quite sure what to do! Maybe some white stamps? But I feel like it would interfere with So Sparkle's insane duo-multi-polychrome thing it's got going on!





So guys, let me leave it to you... This one gave me "nail art block" - how would you pair this guy? How do you tame a beast that is insanely glittery and duochromey? Do you work with the colour shifts, cover it with a topper, or do you do skittles? What do you think?

Full disclosure: This sample was provided for an unbiased review.

Digital Nails Much Glitter Swatch and Review

So a few things: 1) I am extending my break on Claw of Cthulhu from one week to two weeks. I will be away after this Friday (July 4th) to the week of the 22nd (vague for a reason, haha!) and then slowly going back to a regular posting schedule in a gradual manner. I will probably start off with 1-2 posts per week. 2) Gah, I am sorry I haven't been replying to any comments! I swear I will get to them eventually. I may be away from content creation but I'll check in! 3) I HAVE DIGITAL NAILS' DOGE COLLECTION FOR THIS WEEK! Oh Hell yeah, I tried to hint at it with my Doge HOWTO, but it's official and I am kicking it off with MUCH GLITTER.

If you lurve this polish or any of the other Digital Nails polishes I've shared on this blog, be sure to check out the Digital Nails Etsy shop, and follow them on Facebook for more news!



It's so awesome, I can't even stand it.

(OK, I can stand it but seriously.)

Here's a macro and bottle shot:



From Raphaelle of Digital Nails:

Much Glitter! Many Star! So triangle. Wow.

Back in January, someone linked that 2048 game on Facebook and many of us were instantly hooked! Well, what is better than regular 2048? DOGE 2048! I can't tell you how many hours I spent matching little Doge tiles in hopes of getting the final yellow starburst Doge... I digress. This polish was inspired by the rainbow tile doge, and every doge meme that is out there, warning us in its brightly colored comic sans font that we have seen something awesome, or awful. Doge has no boundaries, only bad grammar. We love you, Doge!

This is a rainbow glitter topper with stars in three sizes, triangles, squares, hex, large, medium, small, micro - you name it, it's in here! There are at least 20 different glitters in this one little bottle of polish, so expect something different on every nail! It has the slightest blue jelly tint, but you can wear this polish over ANY color and it will look awesome! SUCH AWESOME. For best results, tip this little number upside down while you're painting your base coat. The larger glitters can be tricky to use. You may also need an extra coat of topcoat to smooth it because of all of those little tiny cutie microglitters.

Have fun with this one!

Come on girl, do you even have to tell me to have fun with this one? Damn it's so fun, I can't even. It's straight up awesome in a bottle. I wanted to be sure of this hypothesis so I put on one of the most neutral polishes I own - Essence Love Me, Cupcake! - and wanted to see what it would do... Yep, from neutral nails to a fun as all heck nails, thanks to MUCH GLITTER. Application wise, this one goes on smoothly. Raphaelle uses a really nice workable suspension base. With big shape glitters like this, of course there is some fishing to be had, and some upside down bottle shaking, but it's nothing that's tough or obnoxious. Here's two coats of Digital Nails Much Glitter!





I had a feeling that Digital Nails' Doge Collection was going to be an underdog collection of the summer (haha, I was seriously going to type in "underdoge" to make a joke but I refrained), so I wanted to see how well Much Glitter would play with its Doge collection colleagues: Wow and So Sparkle. Here's one coat on top of Wow:





And because I don't want to reveal tooooo much... Here's a close-up of Much Glitter over top of glitter sparkle beast So Sparkle (warning: you may drool.):



For funsies, I sponged on some Wow tips but I wasn't quite sure how I liked it. Sometimes I think something is a great idea, and then other times, I think "wow what was I thinking?". In this case, I actually think that if I had some sunshine in my light box, I might have liked this one more:



Overall, I think Much Glitter is a polish collection staple if you don't already own a neon matte glitter. I have a few glitters like this - namely Rainbow Honey Magic Cake and the very limited Special World - but the crazy thing about Much Glitter is that it has over 20 types of glitter in one bottles... Every time you use this glitter topper, it's going to be different. No consistent look - but I think that's why it's a total "summer polish" - summer is about fun, spontaneity, loud, ALL OF THE YOLO (sorry not sorry), and you're going to get a totally random look on your nail with this polish.

What do you think of Digital Nails Much Glitter? Do you think that the Doge Collection will be an Underdoge for a kickass Summer collection?

Full disclosure: This sample was provided for an unbiased review.

HOWTO: Make Your Own DIY Doge Meme Nail Art Decal

Welcome to Shitty Nail Art Monday, where I am actually debuting a new section here on Cthulhu. For the first time I am doing to slot it in both categories, but in the future, I will be doing two separate posts. Yup. Finally doing it. Nail Art HOWTOs. Whoever knew that a girl who ran "Shitty Nail Art Mondays" could also show you how to make your own Shitty Nail Art?! HOW ABOUT THAT! Anyhow. Today I'm gonna teach you how you can make your very own Doge meme nail decal.

(Seriously?)

Seriously.



I based my Doge meme nail art based on the image that Digital Nails posted on their Facebook to announce the Doge collection. This nail art is accomplished by two parts: a DIY decal, and a rainbow background done on the nail. What you will need for this Doge Meme Nail Art:

DOGE DECAL
+ clean plastic bag (I used a sandwich bag)
+ scissors
+ tweezers
+ fine nail art brush
+ white polish (I used OPI Alpine Snow)
+ yellow polish (I used Essence Wanna Be Your Sunshine)
+ orange or red polish (I used Red Fame Fatal)
+ black polish (I used Sally Hansen Black Out)

RAINBOW BACKGROUND
+ fine nail art brush
+ white polish (I used OPI Alpine Snow)
+ bright or neon purple polish (I used Color Club Pucci-Licious)
+ bright or neon blue polish (I used Color Club Chelsea Girl)
+ bright or neon green polish (I used Color Club What A Shock)
+ bright or neon yellow polish (I used Color Club Almost Famous)
+ bright or neon orange polish (I used Color Club Wham! Pow!)
+ bright or neon pink polish (I used Color Club Warhol)

Total time required: 6-8 hours

Now, you can actually work on the RAINBOW BACKGROUND, the same time as you work on the DOGE DECAL, no problem. But first, let's start off with the decal. You will need to paint two coats of white polish on your clean plastic bag.





You want two coats because the decal has to be thick enough to lift off from the plastic bag and it creates a bit of durability. No more than two coats because if it's *too thick*, it will rise off the nail!

Set aside the plastic bag and let the white nail polish dry.

Grab your bright or neon polishes.



Paint your nail with one coat of white.

From the outside edge of the nail, start painting your rainbow. Don't mind the overlap as it creates a slight gradient effect. Work by painting one edge of the nail and then switch to the other edge - working towards the centre. My order was: purple, pink, blue, orange, green, yellow. Using the polish brush is fine for this.



Return to the plastic bag decal. Start creating Doge's head by painting a circle with two colours and shapes for ears. I used a mixture of white, yellow and red polish to create two distinct colours. When mixing your colours, the less you put in - the more subtle the colours are. Be careful! When painting Doge's face, try not to go over where you've painted. Painting with nail varnish is VERY tricky as it sticks to the layers underneath it and makes it tacky again!



Let set for 5-10 minutes.

Begin to paint the face details - again, less is more. Pick up the tiniest amount of black polish on your nail art brush and create the nose. This centers the rest of the face. Paint the eyes and mouth. You can add optional white highlights, but it's unnecessary.

Does it look like a lumpy mess? Don't worry about it. It's normal.



Let set again. This time, you are letting it set overnight. I waited about 5 hours.

While waiting for the decal to set, you can paint tiny stars on your rainbow nail with your fine nail art brush. I painted little crosses and added little dots.



I made a few modifications to my Doge face before I set mine overnight. Once dry and hardened to the touch, use a pair of scissors to cut out your decal. I cut a larger portion of the decal out, and then trimmed closer and closer to the shape I wanted Doge to be.







Very carefully, use a pair of tweezers to lift your Doge decal off from the plastic.



Dab your nail lightly with a bit of top coat, and set your decal.

Finish the whole look off with a nice coat of top coat. I used two coats because I am insane.





What do you think of making your own nail art decals? Do you have the patience? Be sure to let me know if you try out any of my crazy HOWTO Shitty Nail art designs by tagging me on Instagram!

Rainbow Honey Sea Star Swatch and Review

Dear lord, whenever you are sick and you think you are getting better, you should still continue to rest. Because relapsing is the worst! Anyway, thankfully it's the weekend and I am going to be gunning hard for a sleep in. Like, that's all I want in the world right now. But luckily I have a super pretty nail polish to post on good ol Cthulhu before I depart for the weekend. Speaking of departing, I am scheduling a week long break for the second week of July. So I hope next week's posts are entertaining enough for then! In the meantime, here's some Rainbow Honey.









This is Rainbow Honey Sea Star which is described on the site as "a coral starfish mix and mingle in this sparkling sea of aqua, light blue, and iridescent glitters!". I wish this one was inspired from something because it's very pretty in the bottle. Application wise, this one went on OK as far as giant glitters and shape glitters go. Some dabbing that needs to be done - some fishing. The glitters lay on quite thick and because my nail is curved, I had some stars raise up, but two coats of Seche Vite fixed that right up. Here's my swatch of two and a half ish coats over top of Essence That's What I Mint!:















I really love this polish over Essence That's What I Mint!, but with that said, I think with the palette of this polish - bits of yellow, coral, and aqua - it gets to be very picky with what you can use as an undie. It looked OK over Color Club Over The Moon, a blue holo but not as good as it does with the minty polish shade. I can't imagine rocking this over a bold red, for example. I definitely love it over mint though, that's for sure. Also this was a bit of a hassle to get off - I used two go's of Julep's Party Over (foil method), I really packed on the glitters!!

What do you think of Rainbow Honey's Sea Star? How would you pair it up?

Zoya Magical PixieDust Vega Swatch and Review

Happy Hump Day! I'm still a sick factory but I feel a bit better. Also my package came in the mail so I am excited over my black mermaid skirt and I got some custom Studio Ghibli leggings, ZOMG. Really, life is grand right now asides being a bit stressed but... It will be good. Yes. Anyway I have a backlog post today - I have Zoya Vega, from the MAGICAL PixieDust collection. (Haha, MAGICAL! I don't know why that's so funny.)

This is Zoya Vega, a dusty baby blue toned textured and glitter mix. It's one of Zoya's PixieDusts... that is MAGICAL! By "Magical", Zoya just means that there are holographic glitters. Zoya Vega is actually a one coater, but for whatever reason, I thought it would be a good idea to do two. (It's not, really.) Application was nice here. Laid out a fairly solid foundation, and the second coat adhered to the first coat very smoothly. Here's my swatch in two coats without top coat:











I really liked this polish but I did have a couple of gripes with it. For one, it didn't suit my skin tone very nicely. I have a bit of lobster skin tone going on and I apologize. And another, the two coats were REALLY REALLY textured. I had read that these polishes were super textured but these actually pulled on my high quality nylon leggings, what the! So next time I may consider one coat only. Also I had to use my Julep Party's Over glitter removal kit to get it off.

What do you think of the MAGICAL PixieDusts? Are you done with textures or would you opt for some holographic glitters in the mix?